Optometric Child Vision Care and Guidance. A Series of Papers Released by the Optometric Extension Program to its Membership 1966-1967

Abstract

The diagnosis and treatment of early learning problems and their relation to visual development is the subject of a series of 12 articles. The optometric viewpoint expressed is that vision is learned. A child's method of organizing his world, and manifestations of his disorganized behavior, including poor early academic achievement, probably result in learning to see. Vision is viewed as an emergent from four underlying subsystems: (1) anti-gravity (Where am I in space?), (2) centering (Where is it in space?), (3) identification (What is it?), and (4) speech-auditory (communicates his visual impressions). Poor development in any of these subsystems has disruptive effects on the remaining subsystems and on the child's behavior as a whole, particularly on his performance in early education. Proper development, on the other hand, whether achieved normally or through the methods of remedial therapy outlined in the series, leads to integral functioning of the subsystems and ultimately to visualization, which is described as the supreme process of unconsciously using the sensing modes that bring information to the child for synthesis. (MH)